With just over 10 months left til the ball drops on 1999, building owners, managers and even those in the commercial and residential mortgage industries are scrambling to cover all their bases before the dreaded Y2K hits.

Groups like the Building Owners and Managers Association of America is putting together checklists and programs for their members, things to do to be ready for the moment at midnight when some computers -- thanks to a short-sighted, space-saving glitch put into computers more than 20 years ago -- go mental.

Other groups, like the nation's commercial and residential mortgage lenders, are pretty much on track and ready for Y2K, according to the latest issue of National Mortgage News.

Miami-Joe McCartin, chief information officer for Fleet Mortgage Group, counts himself among the guardedly optimistic regarding the Year 2000 computer problem, NMN reported.

"We will probably pull through this thing, but there may be glitches and bumps along the way," he said.

Early testing for the problem among mortgage participants is going very well. Mortech 98 indicates that 25% of all IT budgets was spent fixing the problem.

But among the steps mortgage participants need to take is to make sure their efforts comply with the Year 2000 Information Readiness Act, said Mr. McCartin, speaking at the Faulkner and Gray Mortgage Technology Conference here. Its purpose, he says, is to encourage companies to share information about their status, without fear of a lawsuit, which in the past impeded everybody's ability to discuss the problem.

Fear of potential lawsuits, he says, prevented the MBA from creating a site that listed the preparedness of vendors and lenders for the millennium problem. Under the protection of warranty clause of the Disclosure Act, if you say something about Year 2000 that proves to be false down the road, the company is only liable for the statement if it can be proved that you intentionally lied.

Most mid- to large-sized lenders, and the vast majority of smaller lenders, have gotten their internal systems compliant, NMN reports.

The next step is addressing the interdependencies among all the systems, and that's what the MBA industry test is all about, says Mr. McCartin.

For building owners and managers, BOMA is helping their constituents with the crunch time.

Property professionals who haven't adequately prepared are scrambling to get their buildings ready by the end of the year, while those who have made preparations know there is precious little time remaining to test their systems or create contingency plans.

To help maximize companies' efforts in the time remaining, BOMA developed "Y2K2: A Contingency Planning and Testing Guide for Buildings."

Y2K2 provides in-depth guidance in three critical areas: how to test building systems to determine if they are Y2K compliant; how to develop contingency plans and train property personnel on implementing them; and how to work with tenants and other key business partners such as utilities and telecommunications providers.

While providing detailed instructions, Y2K2 also serves as a road map to Web sites with related information and features 11 appendices with model testing procedures, equipment checklists, a model contingency plan, sample lease language, Y2K disclosure statements and much more.

"We have had a tremendous response from property owners and managers who are anxious to get their buildings prepared for the century date change. The closer we get to this immovable deadline, the greater the need to leverage our resources," said Bill Garland, president of BOMA International.

"This new guidebook will help prevent Y2K problems with heating, ventilating and air conditioning systems, fire and life safety, security, telecommunications and other critical systems, and it will guide property professionals in the implementation of contingency plans -- just in case," he added.

Published: February 25, 1999

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